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Lasting diet Less calories and a good mood
Above all, people who have a little too much on their hips, strive to get rid of extra pounds with special nutrition programs. As researchers have now found, even normal people benefit from a diet. With them, a significant increase in quality of life was noted.
Especially overweight want to get rid of pounds
Now, as it gets noticeably warmer, thoughts often circle around the coming summer. Although people of normal weight do not actually have to lose weight, they often think about how to save calories day after day to prepare for the bathing season. Some nutritional programs promise to arrive at the beach figure in just eight weeks. As Harvard researchers reported a few months ago, diets bring almost nothing, but it makes perfect sense to include healthy foods in their daily diet. For those who want to reduce their weight, new insights from the US may give a boost in motivation. Scientists have found there that a lasting diet brings a quality of life.
Although people of normal weight do not have to reduce their weight, they can still benefit from a diet. According to a study, this can improve their quality of life. (Image: PhotoSG / fotolia.com) People of normal weight benefit from permanent diet
The magazine "Spiegel Online" reported in a recent article on an experiment in the US, which shows that a permanent diet makes normal and slightly overweight calmed and fights bad mood. However, this requires months of stamina, as the researchers write in the journal "Jama Internal Medicine". The team of Corby K. Martin of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center selected 218 study participants with an average age of 38 years for the study. All subjects were healthy at this time, their body mass index (BMI) was on average at 25 on the border of normal to overweight, obesity suffered no one. Two thirds of the participants were divided into a diet group. Within the two-year experiment, they should reduce their daily calorie intake by 25 percent. The remaining third - the control group - was allowed to continue eating as usual.
Information about sleep quality, quality of life and sexual activity
The study participants had to complete questionnaires at the beginning of the study, at 12 and 24 months, and reported on their sleep quality, quality of life, sexual activity and mood. Even before the study, scientists knew that people who are overweight would benefit from fewer calories. However, it had not been fully investigated before, whether this also applies to normal-weighted or somewhat thick, healthy people. It was sometimes feared that the mood could rather sink due to the strict nutritional requirements.
Weight loss and better mood
Although a quarter (25 percent) did not manage to reduce calories, overall the diet group had reduced their calorie intake by 15 percent after one year, after all, by 12 percent after 24 months. The diet participants lost an average of 7.6 kilograms within the two years, the members of the control group only 0.5 kilograms. According to the researchers, the quality of life, which was already high in both groups, also showed positive dietary effects. As reported by the "Spiegel", the whim in the non-diet group worsened on average over the two years, while it improved among the participants on diet. Even with the tension showed a plus in the diet makers.
More desire for sex
In addition, the researchers found after 24 months, a small positive effect on the desire for sex and the partnership. The diet group participants reported improvement on this point. However, the clearest effect was in general health. While the control group decreased somewhat in the two years, the result in the diet group improved very clearly. Furthermore, men on permanent diet reported a slightly lower sexual excitability - despite more desire for sex. For many other factors studied, such as sleep quality, no significant differences were documented.
Improved quality of life
"We know that overweight people who lose weight experience improvements in their quality of life, but it was not clear whether similar benefits would occur in people of normal weight and slightly overweight," lead author Corby K. Martin told Reuters. Some experts doubted, according to Martin, that calorie reduction in normal weight could have a positive effect. "However, we found that calorie restriction over two years and loss of about ten percent of body weight improved the quality of life of normal-weight and slightly obese subjects." According to Spiegel, however, the study also has a few shortcomings. For example, the fact that the diet group met more frequently with scientists may contribute to their sense of better health. (Ad)